Chelsea centre forward Samuel Eto’o has apologised to Liverpool centre midfielder Jordan Henderson after his horror tackle in Sunday’s televised clash at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea won the tight encounter 2-1 as Eto’o scored the winner with a deftly finish, but it was the tackle on Henderson that proved the talking point amongst pundits and supporters.
The Cameroon forward had a controversial game, Eto’o also clashed with Luis Suarez and was seemingly fortunate not to concede a late penalty, and he even swapped shirts with Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho at half time.
Speaking to The Sun Newspaper, Eto’o stated…..
“Maybe I should have been sent off.
“But I’m not the referee. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but we must respect decisions from the officials.
“During the match in the first moments, the game was passionate on both sides, but people know I’m not violent. I was really sad to see Jordan on the floor – I want to take this opportunity to say sorry.
“There are days where I’m the one who gets kicked – it’s football and can happen unfortunately.
“But my only intention was to defend and prevent my team from conceding a goal, nothing else. It wasn’t to take out an opponent.”
However, Eto’o was less than convinced his tackle on Suarez merited a penalty.
“The ref did his job. He was two metres from us,” he reflected.
“We can’t all be the ref and it’s easy for people to talk when they are far away. Yes, there was contact – but I didn’t commit a foul.”
The former Barcelona and Inter Milan forward also defender Howard Webb…
“He’s not one of the best referees – he is the best in the world!” he insisted.
“If this task was easy then we’d all be referees. He may be the best but remains human. Liverpool fans can complain but so can Chelsea supporters because there was a penalty on Eden Hazard.
“That would have given us a comfortable 3-1 advantage and maybe we could have scored more goals at that point because it would have ruined Liverpool’s confidence.
By Ben Reardon
@BenReardon1
